Scientist, Optical Engineering (Technical Manager)

Location: Rochester, New York, US. Onsite role with a 9/80 schedule, including every other Friday off.

Salary: $140,500–$261,500 per year in New York.

Company

hirify.global develops mission-critical defense technology connecting space, air, land, sea, and cyber domains for national security customers.

What you will do

• Lead, coach, develop, hire, and retain an optical engineering organization averaging 20 direct reports.
• Plan staffing, workload, equipment, resources, budgets, and operational priorities across optical engineering programs.
• Provide technical direction for optical requirements, architectures, designs, trade studies, and proposals covering UV through long-wave infrared systems.
• Develop optical analyses, error budgets, STOP analyses, tolerances, performance predictions, alignment strategies, metrology, and test layouts.
• Partner with systems, mechanical, electrical, thermal, manufacturing, mission assurance, and test teams through fabrication, integration, qualification, and verification.
• Resolve technical issues, support root-cause investigations and engineering changes, communicate risks and recovery plans, and guide technology maturation and production transfer.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Optical Engineering, Optics, Physics, or a related engineering discipline with at least 12 years of related experience; or a graduate degree with at least 10 years; or 16 years of related experience in lieu of a degree.
• At least five years of leadership experience managing engineering teams, technical organizations, or significant multidisciplinary engineering scopes; technical team leadership qualifies.
• Ability to obtain a federal security clearance; security clearances may only be granted to U.S. citizens.

Nice to have

• Active Secret or Top Secret clearance and an advanced degree in Optical Engineering, Optics, Physics, or a related discipline.
• Space optical component, subassembly, system, or payload development, integration, delivery, environmental qualification, and acceptance testing experience.
• Experience with STOP analysis, athermalization, optomechanical design, stray light, radiometry, polarization, multispectral or hyperspectral systems, and non-sequential analysis using FRED or equivalent software.
• Precision optical metrology, advanced alignment, wavefront analysis using Zernike polynomials, interferometry, optical test layouts, and optical measurement data analysis.
• Detector characterization, calibration, image-quality assessment, electro-optical performance modeling, and knowledge of radiation, vacuum, contamination, and thermal cycling effects.
• Optical fabrication, supplier management, optical coatings, MATLAB, Python, CodeV, or Zemax OpticStudio.
• Experience with proposals, technology maturation, customer technical exchanges, strategic planning, on-orbit commissioning, anomaly resolution, and end-to-end space-system architecture.
• Strong knowledge of geometrical optics, diffraction, imaging, radiometry, component tolerancing, requirements verification, and balancing multiple program priorities.

Culture & Benefits

• Inclusive, engaging environment focused on professional growth, work-life success, community commitment, and excellence.
• Health and disability insurance, 401(k) match, flexible spending accounts, employee assistance, education assistance, parental leave, paid time off, and company-paid holidays.
• Benefits and available programs may vary by hire date, schedule type, and collective bargaining agreement.
• Employment includes required security, export-control, engineering compliance, safety, background-check, drug-testing, and training requirements where applicable.